Two suspects arrested for gang rape of teenage girl

The Changa Manga police have arrested two suspects and are conducting raids to apprehend a third for allegedly gang-raping a 13-year-old girl in the fields of village Kot Watwan, Chunian Tehsil.

B* stated that she ventured outside her home to go to the outhouse, when she was abducted by the accused, dragged off to a nearby field, and sexually assaulted at gunpoint.

“We do not have a washroom at home, so my brother went outside with me so I could do my business,” she said. “But three men, namely Tanveer, Saifullah (alias Chana), and a third who wore a mask, intercepted us and took me to some nearby fields where they sexually assaulted me,” she recounted.

B’s parents have urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Regional Police Office (RPO) Sheikhupura for justice.

“We use the fields all the time in place of a washroom,” said B’s mother while speaking to Voicepk.net. “But that day, when she asked me to come with her, I could not go, as my back was hurting. So I sent her out with her younger brother instead. As soon as she approached the fields, three men appeared and took my daughter by force. When my son tried calling out for help, they pointed a gun at him and told him that they would shoot them both if he made any sound.”

After the assault, B’s brother returned home and told the family what had happened.

Panic-stricken, the family went looking for the girl, and nearly after two hours found her sprawled naked on the ground, in a terrible state.

Police Take Notice

Taking notice of the incident, District Police Office (DPO) Kasur Tariq Aziz Sindhu ordered immediate action against the accused. A case was registered against three suspects, of whom one is currently at large.

Meanwhile, the survivor’s medico-legal was carried out at the Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) hospital under the supervision of the Changa Manga police. While the preliminary examination has confirmed rape, DNA samples have also been collected and sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) in Lahore for a complete forensic analysis.

Police say once the report is received, it will become easier to track down the remaining suspects.

While the area locals have seriously condemned the incident, they are unsure if those arrested are the ones who are involved.

Voicepk.net reached out to the families of the accused, who declined to comment. But the brother of one of the accused, Saifullah, says that his brother was not involved, adding that the young boys were being framed.

“Saifullah has been wrongly implicated in this case,” he insisted. “But when the DNA report eventually comes out, his name will be cleared.

CHILD ABUSE CASES ON THE RISE

Despite the promulgation of laws for the protection of women and children, as well the criminalization of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), an alarming number of child sexual abuse (CSA) incidents continue to be reported from Kasur.

According to data collected by the children’s welfare NGO Sahil, a total of 4,253 child abuse cases were reported in local and national newspapers in 2022, a 10.4% increase from 2021. These numbers indicated that an average of 12 children were subjected to abuse on a daily basis. Fifty-five percent (2,325) victims/survivors were girls and 45% (1,928) were boys. Half (2,130) of all reported incidents pertained to the sexual abuse of minors.

Kasur’s Troubled History with Child Abuse

In the country, where CSA cases were concerned, Punjab led the list, with 71% of the total cases, among which Kasur ranked as the fourth most vulnerable district with 340 reported cases.

In the May of 2022, police arrested one Afzal, a resident of Khatikan area in Chunian for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old stepdaughter. That same month, two robbers gang-raped a 13-year-old girl at gunpoint in front of her father and other family members during a highway robbery near Chunian bypass in Pattoki.

In October 2019, a rickshaw driver Sohail Shahzad was arrested for the rape and murder of four boys, aged between eight to 12 years. He was sentenced to death on three counts in December of that year and is still on death row. Shahzad had been previously convicted of sodomizing a young boy in 2011 but managed to pressure the aggrieved party to withdraw the case.

In January 2018, the rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab Ansari sparked protests across the country. During the investigation, 24-year-old Imran Ali was found after a thorough DNA investigation assaulting and murdering her as well as seven other minors.

In February 2018, an anti-terrorism court sentenced him to death on four counts. He was subsequently executed by hanging in October 2018.

Even earlier, in 2015, police nabbed 14 men for sexually abusing, filming, and blackmailing at least 200 children of Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur from 2006 to 2014. Widely regarded as Pakistan’s biggest child sexual abuse case, only three suspects were convicted by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) and given life in prison.